"Critics argue that giving amnesty to 12 to 30 million illegal aliens in the U.S. would have an immediate negative impact on America’s working and middle class — specifically black Americans and the white working class — who would be in direct competition for blue-collar jobs with the largely low-skilled illegal alien population." JOHN BINDER

“She will continue the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by thepresident and the political leadership at the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said. Congress cannot and must not confirm anyone to lead an agency in DHS or other law enforcement agency who supports executive amnesty.”REALLY WANT TO HAND THESE PEOPLE AMNESTY? THEY ALREADY GET OUR JOBS AND BILLIONS IN WELFARE!

ANOTHER MEXICAN MURDERER ON THE LOOSE.

The woman, 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle (“Kate”), was struck in the chest with a bullet while visiting Pier 14 on the Embarcadero with her family. She was rushed to a nearby hospital but doctors were unable to save her, as she died in her parents’ arms a few hours later.

The suspect, Francisco Sanchez, was identified as being in his mid-40s and on probation from Texas due to previous, undisclosed crimes. He was arrested after tips from passers-by. Officials said that the killing appeared to be random.

Perhaps because of all of these factos, a Reuters poll found that 70% of Americans, including 86% of Republicans, believe illegal immigrants "threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs," while 63% believe that "immigrants place a burden on the economy."

Byron York: What is the real number of illegal border crossings? Washington Examiner

“Until lawmakers end the catch-and-release policies of the Obama administration,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies, “any infrastructure improvements, new strategies, and better metrics are pointless.”

REALLY WANT TO HAND THESE PEOPLE AMNESTY? THEY ALREADY GET OUR JOBS AND BILLIONS IN WELFARE!

ANOTHER MEXICAN MURDERER ON THE LOOSE.

The woman, 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle (“Kate”), was struck in the chest with a bullet while visiting Pier 14 on the Embarcadero with her family. She was rushed to a nearby hospital but doctors were unable to save her, as she died in her parents’ arms a few hours later.

The suspect, Francisco Sanchez, was identified as being in his mid-40s and on probation from Texas due to previous, undisclosed crimes. He was arrested after tips from passers-by. Officials said that the killing appeared to be random.

“She will continue the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by thepresident and the political leadership at the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said. Congress cannot and must not confirm anyone to lead an agency in DHS or other law enforcement agency who supports executive amnesty.”

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even a goal of the department.

“She will continue the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by thepresident and the political leadership at the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said. Congress cannot and must not confirm anyone to lead an agency in DHS or other law enforcement agency who supports executive amnesty.”

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even a goal of the department.

“That her candidacy is announced without calling for any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”

“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”

CRONY CAPITALISM and the FALLof A DEMOCRATIC NATION

OBAMA’S LOOTING BANKSTERS AGREE TO FUND HIS DICTATORSHIP… they owned him from day one!

WITH THE MIDDLE-CLASS DEAD AND BURIED, WILL THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “The Race” HELP OBAMA BUILD HIS DICTATORSHIP? Do a search for Obama and La Raza Fascism!

US health insurers seek huge rate increases for 2016

By Kate Randall 6 July 2015

Health insurance companies across the US are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent and more, according to filings by the insurers with state insurance commissions. Insurance companies cite a larger than expected pool of unhealthy enrollees, high drug prices, and diminishing profits as contributing factors requiring the premium hikes.

The rate increase requests are the latest demonstration of the pro-corporate character of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare. The news follows the US Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling June 25, which upheld government tax subsidies, a critical component of the law that provides tax credits to those purchasing insurance coverage on all the exchanges set up under the ACA.

Under Obamacare’s “individual mandate,” uninsured individuals and families must obtain insurance or face a tax penalty. The premiums for plans purchased on the ACA exchanges go directly into the coffers of the private insurers.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield, one of the nation’s largest insurers, is seeking double-digit increases in many states, including a 23 percent hike in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee, and 54 percent in Minnesota.

The ACA, signed into law in 2010, requires insurance companies to disclose large proposed increases in premiums, and increases of 10 percent or more must be made public and are subject to review under federal law. However, there is no mechanism to rein in the rate hikes if state insurance commissions approve them.

In cynical comments made last week in an appearance in Tennessee, Barack Obama said consumers should put pressure on state insurance regulators to examine the rate requests carefully. “My expectation,” he said, “is that they’ll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.”
In one example of the opposite result, Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura N. Cali has just approved rate increases for companies that cover more than 220,000 people. Moda Health Plan, with the state’s largest enrollment, received a 25 percent increase; LifeWise, the second-largest Oregon plan, received a 33 percent hike.

In some cases, state insurance commissions have already granted insurance hikes in excess of those requested by the insurers. In Oregon, Health Net requested increases averaging 9 percent and was granted increases averaging 34.8 percent. Another insurer in the state, Health Co-op, requested a 5.3 percent increase and the state approved a 19.9 percent hike.

Insurers cite the fact that new customers enrolling in ACA plans have turned out to be sicker than expected, which leaves the insurers with a more unhealthy pool of insured customers, requiring them to increase premiums. This is hardly a shocking development, as significant numbers of younger, healthier people have chosen to remain uninsured and risk the cost of getting sick and needing medical care that would have to be paid out-of-pocket.

However, these young people are not simply paying Russian roulette with their health. The driving force behind the decision of many not to enroll in coverage—including the so-called young invincibles, and many workers—is the economic reality that they cannot afford the premiums. To add injury to insult, they face the prospect of being both uninsured and paying tax penalties under the Affordable Care act. For individuals, these penalties for the uninsured were $95 in 2014, rose to $325 in 2015, and will increase to $695 in 2016.

Another factor contributing to the increased pool of unhealthy customers is a policy adopted by the Obama administration in late 2013 that allowed people to keep insurance plans that did not meet new federal standards, including a set of required coverage, including wellness checks and some screenings. The exemption was a political move on the president’s part to make good on his earlier statements that “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”

Customers may also be required to switch plans in order to keep premium costs down. The Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed 2016 premium changes in 10 states and the District of Columbia where the group found complete data for all insurers for the lowest- and second-lowest cost “silver” plans.
For example, Kaiser found that in Seattle, Washington, an unsubsidized person enrolled in the second-lowest silver plan offered by BridgeSpan in 2015 would see a 12.6 percent premium increase if the individual stayed in the same plan, but would pay 10.1 percent less if the person switched to a similar plan offered by Ambetter.

Kaiser found that those switching plans to save money would potentially have to switch doctors and hospitals as well, and that staying with one’s plan also did not guarantee maintaining a provider network. The entire framework of the ACA is thus skewed to the whims of the insurers, and customers are required to scramble each year to determine their selection.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell told the Times, “You have a marketplace where there is competition and people can shop for the plan that best meets their needs in terms of quality and price.”

The HHS secretary did not mention that the most affordable “bronze” plans come with deductibles in excess of $5,000, which means that coverage for all but “essential” medical services do not kick in until the deductible is paid out-of-pocket. This means that despite being insured, many people will go without health care for themselves or their children, resulting in needless suffering and deaths.
Some of the premium increase requests by the private insurers are staggering. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico has requested rate hikes averaging 51 percent for its 33,000 enrollees. Scott & White Health Plan in Texas is seeking a 32 percent rate increase. In a ludicrous statement to the New York Times, Scott & White’s CEO Marinan R. Williams said that the rate hike requests show that “there was a real need for the Affordable Care Act.”

Arches Health Plan, which covers about a quarter of the people insured through Obamacare in Utah, says it collected premiums of $39.7 million in 2014, but had claims of $56.3 million in 2014. The insurer has requested rate increases averaging 45 percent for 2016.

The Obama administration has touted a provision of Obamacare that requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care and related activities. How this works out in reality, however, is that if the profit margins are not to the insurers’ liking, they request premium increases to generate the revenue to pay stockholder dividends and the bloated salaries of insurance company executives.

The CEOs of the top five for-profit health insurance companies—Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana and UnitedHealth—all took home at least $10 million in 2014, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Executive compensation ranged from $10.1 million for Humana CEO Bruce D. Broussard to more than $15 million for Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini.

In the latest round of mergers as a byproduct of Obamacare, Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. announced last week they had reached a deal to merge, creating an insurance company valued at $37 billion. If approved by the government and carried through, the insurer would become the nation’s second largest, covering more than 10 percent of the US population.

OBAMA-CLINTONomics:

CEO PAY 300 TIMES GREATER THAN WORKERS…. AMNESTY WILL MAKE THOSE FIGURES SOAR HIGHER!

“She will continue the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by thepresident and the political leadership at the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said. Congress cannot and must not confirm anyone to lead an agency in DHS or other law enforcement agency who supports executive amnesty.”REALLY WANT TO HAND THESE PEOPLE
AMNESTY? THEY ALREADY GET OUR JOBS AND BILLIONS IN WELFARE!

ANOTHER MEXICAN MURDERER ON THE
LOOSE.

The woman, 32-year-old Kathryn
Steinle (“Kate”), was struck
in the chest with a bullet while visiting Pier 14 on the Embarcadero with her family. She was rushed
to a nearby hospital but doctors were unable to save her, as she died in her
parents’ arms a few hours later.

The suspect,
Francisco Sanchez, was identified as being in his mid-40s and on probation
from Texas due to previous, undisclosed crimes. He was arrested after tips
from passers-by. Officials said that the killing appeared to be random.

Perhaps because of all of these factos, a Reuters poll found that 70% of Americans, including 86% of
Republicans, believe illegal immigrants "threaten traditional U.S. beliefs
and customs," while 63% believe that "immigrants place a burden on
the economy."

Byron York: What is the real
number of illegal border crossings? Washington Examiner

“Until lawmakers end the catch-and-release
policies of the Obama administration,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for
Immigration Studies, “any infrastructure improvements, new strategies, and
better metrics are pointless.”

REALLY WANT TO HAND THESE PEOPLE
AMNESTY? THEY ALREADY GET OUR JOBS AND BILLIONS IN WELFARE!

ANOTHER MEXICAN MURDERER ON THE
LOOSE.

The woman, 32-year-old Kathryn
Steinle (“Kate”), was struck
in the chest with a bullet while visiting Pier 14 on the Embarcadero with her family. She was rushed
to a nearby hospital but doctors were unable to save her, as she died in her
parents’ arms a few hours later.

The suspect,
Francisco Sanchez, was identified as being in his mid-40s and on probation
from Texas due to previous, undisclosed crimes. He was arrested after tips
from passers-by. Officials said that the killing appeared to be random.

“She will continue
the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by thepresident and the
political leadership at the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) said. Congress cannot and must not confirm anyone to lead an
agency in DHS or other law enforcement agency who supports executive amnesty.”

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s
borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even
a goal of the department.

“She will continue
the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by thepresident and the
political leadership at the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) said. Congress cannot and must not confirm anyone to lead an
agency in DHS or other law enforcement agency who supports executive amnesty.”

According to DHS’s own reports, very little of our nation’s
borders (Southwestern or otherwise) are secure, and gaining control is not even
a goal of the department.

“Feinberg, who as the
Obama administration’s “pay tsar” rubber- stamped
multimillion-dollar executive bonuses to Wall Street banks bailed out with taxpayer funds,
will now be given power to slash workers’ benefits at his discretion.”

Consol joins a long list of companies from Sears and Xerox to the Washington Post, Verizon and Kodak who have slashed health benefits for retirees under Barack Obama. According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of businesses offering health coverage to retirees dropped from 66 percent in 1988 to just 25 percent in 2014.

Pittsburgh energy company cuts health care for 4,400 retired workers

By Samuel Davidson 6 July 2015

Pittsburgh-based coal and natural gas giant Consol Energy announced in June that it was eliminating health benefits for its 4,400 retired workers at the end of this year. Consol is the latest in a series of private companies to cut health benefits for its retired workforce.

The company announced plans last October to eliminate retiree health benefits by 2020, so the latest announcement moves the cut forward by four years. Some 32 percent of the retired workers will not be eligible for either Medicaid or Medicare.

Many of these workers spent years working in coal mines or gas facilities exposed to health hazards that produce black lung and various cancers, not to mention the toll taken on their bodies from the strenuous work. In most cases, the $1,200 a month insurance premium is more than a retiree’s entire pension.

Consol also told its 3,800 current employees that they would not receive any health coverage when they retire. The company is cutting most workers from the defined benefits pension plan and forcing them into a 401(k) plan. Only current employees who are over the age of 40 and have 10 years of service will not be forced into the new plan.

Consol also has 5,000 retired union employees whose contracts expire in 2016. It is expected that the firm will eliminate their health care and other benefits at that time. The United Mine Workers, the bargaining agent for the retired workers, has not issued a statement about the Consol cut. In any event, it is guaranteed that the UMW will not put up a fight.

Consol no longer owns or operates a single unionized coal mine. In 2013, in what has become a common corporate shell game in the mining industry, Consol sold all its union mines to Murray Energy of Ohio, making Murray the fifth-largest coal producer in the country. Murray has subsequently cut health care and all other benefits for its 1,200 retired Consol salaried workers and plans to do the same with the union employees when the contract expires next year.

Consol has been hard hit by the drop in both coal and natural gas prices. The company’s stock has fallen more than 50 percent in the past year from a high of over $46 a share down to less than $23 today. Consol stock was nearly $60 a share in 2011.

Consol is the largest producer of bituminous coal in the US, centered around production at its massive Bailey mine complex in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and a major producer of metallurgical coal. In 2010, the company moved very aggressively into natural gas drilling and fracking, with over 9,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale located throughout western Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and West Virginia and in the Utica Shale in Ohio.

Demand for both coal and natural gas is down, the result of the ongoing global recession and the glut in natural gas caused by overproduction through shale fracking. Layoffs throughout the coal industry are common; nearly 400 coal-fired power plants have been shut down in recent years as producers switch to less expensive natural gas.

Consol Energy has taken other measures to cut costs, including laying off 165 employees in its gas drilling and exploration division and cutting capital spending on drilling by 30 percent.

Consol joins a long list of companies from Sears and Xerox to the Washington Post, Verizon and Kodak who have slashed health benefits for retirees under Barack Obama. According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of businesses offering health coverage to retirees dropped from 66 percent in 1988 to just 25 percent in 2014.

OBAMA-CLINTONomics:

CEO PAY 300 TIMES GREATER
THAN WORKERS…. AMNESTY WILL MAKE THOSE FIGURES SOAR HIGHER!

“Historically
speaking, the rise in CEO compensation is tied to the global decline of
American capitalism and the increasing financialization of the economy. In 1965
the ratio of CEO to worker pay was 20 to 1. By 1978 the ratio had only grown to
30 to 1. It was only in the 90s that CEO pay reached absurd heights, rising
from 59 to 1 in 1989 to 376 to 1 in 2000.”

“In 2014 the
Russell Sage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2013, the median household
net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to $56,335—a drop of
36 percent. …While the rich also saw their wealth drop during the recession,
they are more than making that money back. Between 2009 and 2012, 95 percent of
all the income gains in the US went to the top 1 percent. This is the most
distorted post-recession income gain on record.”US health insurers seek huge rate increases for 2016

HILLARY CLINTON: A dedicated disciple of OBAMANOMICS – Why else would his banksters invest so much in her???

“That her candidacy is announced without calling for any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”

“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”

CRONY CAPITALISM and the FALLof A DEMOCRATIC NATION

OBAMA’S LOOTING BANKSTERS AGREE TO FUND HIS DICTATORSHIP… they owned him from day one!

WITH THE MIDDLE-CLASS DEAD AND BURIED, WILL THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “The Race” HELP OBAMA BUILD HIS DICTATORSHIP? Do a search for Obama and La Raza Fascism!

US health insurers seek huge rate increases for 2016

By Kate Randall 6 July 2015

Health insurance companies across the US are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent and more, according to filings by the insurers with state insurance commissions. Insurance companies cite a larger than expected pool of unhealthy enrollees, high drug prices, and diminishing profits as contributing factors requiring the premium hikes.

The rate increase requests are the latest demonstration of the pro-corporate character of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare. The news follows the US Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling June 25, which upheld government tax subsidies, a critical component of the law that provides tax credits to those purchasing insurance coverage on all the exchanges set up under the ACA.

Under Obamacare’s “individual mandate,” uninsured individuals and families must obtain insurance or face a tax penalty. The premiums for plans purchased on the ACA exchanges go directly into the coffers of the private insurers.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield, one of the nation’s largest insurers, is seeking double-digit increases in many states, including a 23 percent hike in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee, and 54 percent in innesota.

The ACA, signed into law in 2010, requires insurance companies to disclose large proposed increases in premiums, and increases of 10 percent or more must be made public and are subject to review under federal law. However, there is no mechanism to rein in the rate hikes if state insurance commissions approve them.

In cynical comments made last week in an appearance in Tennessee, Barack Obama said consumers should put pressure on state insurance regulators to examine the rate requests carefully. “My expectation,” he said, “is that they’ll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.”
In one example of the opposite result, Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura N. Cali has just approved rate increases for companies that cover more than 220,000 people. Moda Health Plan, with the state’s largest enrollment, received a 25 percent increase; LifeWise, the second-largest Oregon plan, received a 33 percent hike.

In some cases, state insurance commissions have already granted insurance hikes in excess of those requested by the insurers. In Oregon, Health Net requested increases averaging 9 percent and was granted increases averaging 34.8 percent. Another insurer in the state, Health Co-op, requested a 5.3 percent increase and the state approved a 19.9 percent hike.

Insurers cite the fact that new customers enrolling in ACA plans have turned out to be sicker than expected, which leaves the insurers with a more unhealthy pool of insured customers, requiring them to increase premiums. This is hardly a shocking development, as significant numbers of younger, healthier people have chosen to remain uninsured and risk the cost of getting sick and needing medical care that would have to be paid out-of-pocket.

However, these young people are not simply paying Russian roulette with their health. The driving force behind the decision of many not to enroll in coverage—including the so-called young invincibles, and many workers—is the economic reality that they cannot afford the premiums. To add injury to insult, they face the prospect of being both uninsured and paying tax penalties under the Affordable Care act. For individuals, these penalties for the uninsured were $95 in 2014, rose to $325 in 2015, and will increase to $695 in 2016.

Another factor contributing to the increased pool of unhealthy customers is a policy adopted by the Obama administration in late 2013 that allowed people to keep insurance plans that did not meet new federal standards, including a set of required coverage, including wellness checks and some screenings. The exemption was a political move on the president’s part to make good on his earlier statements that “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”

Customers may also be required to switch plans in order to keep premium costs down. The Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed 2016 premium changes in 10 states and the District of Columbia where the group found complete data for all insurers for the lowest- and second-lowest cost “silver” plans.
For example, Kaiser found that in Seattle, Washington, an unsubsidized person enrolled in the second-lowest silver plan offered by BridgeSpan in 2015 would see a 12.6 percent premium increase if the individual stayed in the same plan, but would pay 10.1 percent less if the person switched to a similar plan offered by Ambetter.

Kaiser found that those switching plans to save money would potentially have to switch doctors and hospitals as well, and that staying with one’s plan also did not guarantee maintaining a provider network. The entire framework of the ACA is thus skewed to the whims of the insurers, and customers are required to scramble each year to determine their selection.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell told the Times, “You have a marketplace where there is competition and people can shop for the plan that best meets their needs in terms of quality and price.”

The HHS secretary did not mention that the most affordable “bronze” plans come with deductibles in excess of $5,000, which means that coverage for all but “essential” medical services do not kick in until the deductible is paid out-of-pocket. This means that despite being insured, many people will go without health care for themselves or their children, resulting in needless suffering and deaths.
Some of the premium increase requests by the private insurers are staggering. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico has requested rate hikes averaging 51 percent for its 33,000 enrollees. Scott & White Health Plan in Texas is seeking a 32 percent rate increase. In a ludicrous statement to the New York Times, Scott & White’s CEO Marinan R. Williams said that the rate hike requests show that “there was a real need for the Affordable Care Act.”

Arches Health Plan, which covers about a quarter of the people insured through Obamacare in Utah, says it collected premiums of $39.7 million in 2014, but had claims of $56.3 million in 2014. The insurer has requested rate increases averaging 45 percent for 2016.

The Obama administration has touted a provision of Obamacare that requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care and related activities. How this works out in reality, however, is that if the profit margins are not to the insurers’ liking, they request premium increases to generate the revenue to pay stockholder dividends and the bloated salaries of insurance company executives.

The CEOs of the top five for-profit health insurance companies—Aetna, Anthem, Cigna,Humana and UnitedHealth—all took home at least $10 million in 2014, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Executive compensation rangedfrom $10.1 million for Humana CEO Bruce D. Broussard to more than $15 million for Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini.

In the latest round of mergers as a byproduct of Obamacare, Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. announced last week they had reached a deal to merge, creating an insurance company valued at $37 billion. If approved by the government and carried through, the insurer would become the nation’s second largest, covering more than 10 percent of the US population.

OBAMA-CLINTONomics:

CEO PAY 300 TIMES GREATER THAN WORKERS…. AMNESTY WILL MAKE THOSE FIGURES SOAR HIGHER!

“By the time of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, the
Democratic Party had completely repudiated its association with the reforms of
the New Deal and Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare programs to
provide an ample supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW MEANS OPEN
BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black capitalists, and
passed the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three strikes”
provision that has helped create the largest prison population in the world.”